Sports and recreation also served to reinforce the message that the white society's ways were the 'way of good,' in the terminology of Father Lacombe's famous ladder. The amusements favoured by the schools tended in the early years to feature such quintessentially British institutions as brass bands. Although they might have been intended to capitalise on the students' enjoyment of music, the bands tended to present a European face to the world. In recreation, in the early years, the same message was unmistakable. One of the sports that was promoted vigorously at first was an alien one: cricket.

      This genteel recreation, while never widespread, was supported at some schools, including Lebret, which ironically was operated by French Oblates. Over time, as will be noted later, sports activities such as hockey and baseball became dominant, but there is no record anywhere in the residential schools of encouragement of the sport that was indigenous to the woodlands Indians of eastern Canada. In spite of the fact that equipment for it was inexpensive, that fields on which to play it were easily laid out, and that it held the potential to provide physical activity for large numbers of students, lacrosse apparently was not played in residential schools. The omission spoke volumes.